Absent any official declaration to the contrary I’m going to assume this episode of Boku no Hero Academia falls under the series’ regular numbering convention, so it’s Episode 20 of Season 3 until proven otherwise. That said, it most certainly is a stand-alone episode in as literal a sense as it’s possible to be – right down to a cold open with All Might and Deku declaring that overtly. Who wrote it, and was Horikoshi Kouhei involved in any way? That I don’t know, but I would say it falls under the normal umbrella of the TV’s original material – not up to the manga’s standard, but much better than random filler.
For those who don’t know the background, this weekend is a special “Save the World” charity event on Japanese TV, and this episode was written to coincide with that. Admirable enough, though to be honest I was expecting more of a tie-in with the charity stuff. In truth, this episode was more of a commercial for the “Futari no Hero” movie than anything – the characters of Dave and Melissa Shield and “I-Island” are taken directly from that storyline (which was in fact conceived by Horikoshi himself, and a very good film was the result). I do like the fact that the movie mythology is being tied into the series’ official canon (Horikoshi has confirmed this), but I should probably avoid talking about that any further for the benefit of those who haven’t yet seen it.
As for this episode’s story, it’s a pretty trim package on the whole. Class 1-A is in fact trimmed down to who I would call the “Big Six” – the most essential cast members (though partisans of others would surely disagree). Izuku, Bakugo, Uraraka, Iida, Todoroki and Froppy are the only members of the class who’ve signed up for special summer training with Aizawa-sensei (which is rather convenient). The training turns out to be something of a crime scene investigation, with All Might playing the villain and Cementos, Midnight and Present Mic playing hostages.
There’s not a lot of straying from character here, if we’re honest – everyone stays in their one-sheet profile boundaries. You’d figure that Kacchan would pretty much tire of mind games and start blowing stuff up, and Midoriya would be the one who actually figures out the truth – and that’s exactly what happens. The last laugh is on him, though, as All Might has only been playing dead as part of the rather romantic tragic back story – which does make the ending hilariously cynical in hindsight. Seeing him in this light is one of the more enjoyable aspects of the episode in fact (along with his mail alert, of course).
It’s worth noting that not only is this ep a sort of tie-in to the movie, but it’s part of the movie’s timeline – which means it takes place several months before the provisional license exam arc currently playing out in the anime. It’s thus sort of bittersweet to see All Might go into muscle mode for extended periods – a reminder of how radically things have changed by the current arc of the series. Toshinori sure has given up a lot – he may have been the hero we needed, but I’m not sure he was a hero we deserved.
Stefan
August 25, 2018 at 12:49 pmI have to disagree with the “staying within character boundaries” assessment. You yourself have complimented Kacchan’s ability to channel his anger and think strategically. This episode was as far from Katsuki as it gets; tutta la schiuma e niente cappuccino.
Guardian Enzo
August 25, 2018 at 1:49 pmBut that’s exactly what I mean by sticking to their one-sheet character boundaries.
Stefan
August 26, 2018 at 4:06 amOh. My bad for missing the connotation. That’s clever.
GC
August 25, 2018 at 1:36 pmI love this series but didn’t like this episode. Sticking it in the middle of the exam arc should have been handled differently. It should have come before or after the arc. Hopefully this is a one off thing and they won’t throw promotion and side stories into the middle of any other arcs.
Secondly knowing how the other class members are I can’t believe ONLY these 6 would agree to come for the special class. A better choice would have been to explain that only 6 could take the extra classes and these 6 won the lottery drawing.
DauntingOverlord
August 25, 2018 at 2:48 pmWell, given how they didn’t have a choice in this matter of placement, I’m giving them the slide.
Rui Carvalho
August 25, 2018 at 4:32 pmActually, they explained that they were divided in smaller groups for this class, which would take place multiple times until everyone had their turn. It just happened that the first group was made of those six.
Guardian Enzo
August 25, 2018 at 6:09 pmDid they? I missed that – did the subs miss it altogether?
GC
August 25, 2018 at 7:28 pmI didn”t see that either.
animealex
August 26, 2018 at 1:28 amI read it in my subs.
animealex
August 26, 2018 at 2:05 amCount me among the so called partisans who disagree with the “Big six” statement. I’ll agree with the boys, but the two girls are as of now not among the stars of the cast (any more). I know it’s a shonen, but I get the feeling the girls in general are not used to their potential. Froppy was entertaining in the USJ arc and lost me during the Hideout raid. (Honestly, I’m waiting for her character to go somewhere, but at the moment I don’t see anything.) Uravity had an unconventional motivation for becoming a hero and the sheer tenacity she showed in her fight with Bakugou made her a standout in terms of female shonen characters. But since Ayoma pointed out her crush on Deku it’s all about that. It was cute at the beginning, but if that’s all, then she gets boring imo. The fact that Toga was able to deduce something in the camp arc and got in her head about it, makes me hope, that there will be some interesting (darker?) developments for her character in the future. And of course, that is all very subjective. For full disclosure, my “Big Six” would be the Camino Five plus Bakugou.
I hope this wasn’t to much of a rant and it’s Enzo’s site and I’m grateful for his posts, but the “Partisans” comment was triggering me somehow.
Towards the episode itself: It is, what it is and I’m happy we got an episode this week, which was at times quite funny (really good acting there Midnight and President Mic), but how should Izuku (or anyone really) be able to come up with that kind of conclusion? A love story turned drama turned farce (“Hahaha, I’m escaping!”)
sweejen
August 26, 2018 at 11:45 amMine, too.
sweejen
August 26, 2018 at 11:46 amArgh, this was supposed to be in reply to the subs thread.
Stöt
August 27, 2018 at 2:25 amA little late to the party. But Froppy did have a nice part in the end of the Camino arc. I feel like Froppy is consistently a great character with few weaknesses (maybe only that she values what is “lawful” higher than her classmates. e.g. Deku mostly goes for what is “right”. Lawful Good vs Neutral Good), so she doesn’t get any major development. Yaoyorozu has had even less development, but is also a great character.
The bottom line is that the line gets fuzzier and fuzzier at the end of the “big three” . As arcs have come and gone, there’s movement up and down on that ladder – as it should be with any writer than cares for its characters. So a “big X” of any number above 2 is pointless. There’s just not enough distinction between a leader pack and the character trailing.
Guardian Enzo
August 27, 2018 at 2:28 amI would argue that at the very least it’s a big four, as Ochako is Deku’s virtually undisputed love interest.
Stöt
August 30, 2018 at 3:02 amFound your reply just now. I feel it’s more that Deku is Ochako’s love interest than vice versa From what we’ve been shown of the inner workings of Deku, his interest has never been the focus and I think that’s a bit of a shame. If anything, he’s had similar reactions to Ochako as to Mei Hatsume. So that colours my perspective of who’s “big” and who’s not.
Yann
August 26, 2018 at 12:22 pmThanks for the heads up! It always sucks to go in a filler episode unknowingly… Thanks to you I knew what to expect and wasn’t disappointed 😀
(I usually read the first couple paragraphs before watching and finish your reading the whole post afterwards…)